The Table
by Fleeting Eternity
Summary: After Isabella is amazed by another one of Phineas's outstanding projects, she finally decides to ask how he got his creativity. Who knew that the answer would be something so simple? Oneshot.


"So Isabella, what do you think?!" Phineas eagerly asked, waiting anxiously for Isabella's reply.

She opened her eyes. "Phineas!" she gasped, "The Fireside Girls are gonna love this! I can't believe you made us a club house, it's huge! Whoa, it has and indoor pool, a glass cabinet for all our badges, Fireside Girl Handbooks Volumes I-XIII, and… oh, Phineas, you thought of everything!" Isabella gave Phineas a big hug then asked, "Where did you get your creativity?! You _amaze_ me! I wish I had a mind like that."

"Believe it or not," Phineas explained, "it all started with a table."

"A _table_?" Isabella asked, clearly not believing him, "A wooden plank with legs gave you your imagination?"

"Ha ha," Phineas laughed sarcastically, "Sit down, I'll tell ya about it."

Phineas and Isabella sat under the large oak tree in the backyard as Phineas told his story.

"You see," Phineas began, "when I was young, or… more young than I am now, my favorite play thing was always a table. I had my action figures and such like most boys, but the imagination and creativity I could produce with them was so… _limited_," he spit out the word like he was sucking on a sour lemon.

"I first discovered the table," Phineas continued, "when I was around 3 years old. I was coloring in one of my super hero coloring books when I suddenly dropped my crayon. I bent down to get it, and that's when I discovered what it looked like under my table. All the different switches and knobs, and then the large legs perfectly entwined to the top. It looked like a jungle.

"I crawled under to 'explore', I guess you could say. After being under the table for a few minutes, I had a sudden burst of ideas come from inside of me… like a whole new world had finally been unlocked from within me. I immediately closed my coloring book, packaged up my crayons, and got to work.

"I raced to my bed and pulled off my sheets. I took those sheets and carefully draped them over the table and crawled inside.

"It was dark, but not completely dark, almost like being in the shade under a large tree. I imagined that I was in the army, hiding behind a large wall of tightly packed sand bags and waiting for the enemy to attack. I looked up into the sky. It was dark and polluted with all the smoke from fires and gunshots. Then I heard a shot from a canon. I braced myself for whatever would happen next.

"At that moment, the commander of the opposing country's army jumped my sandbag wall with his gun pointed at me. I reacted quickly by retreating into the woods, weaving my way in and out of the trees. I could hear the commander shooting at me from behind, but then I escaped!

"'Ha ha, losers!', I said, 'you can't catch Phineas Flynn!' Then I came back to reality and laughed for hours the amazing experience I had just imagined- and all from a table. My mom came in then and told me I had to go to sleep, but I was excited, because I knew that the next day the table and I would have even more adventures.

"So as soon as I woke up the next day, I ran straight to the table again. As soon as I was under it again, I imagined I was in a submarine. I was steering it, trying to stay clear from sharks. As soon as I found a place that looked clear, I put on my scuba diving gear and prepared to swim out. When I was in the water I felt so free. There seemed to be an infinite amount of space to explore. I looked at the coral, played with the fish, and rested on the soft kelp beds. And before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

"After lunch, I reflected on my two adventures I had already had with the table. I decided right then and there that instead of just imagining them, I wanted to make them real. I wanted to experience all the things that my imagination had produced and _more_. Besides, why else would we have an imagination if we couldn't put it to work?"

Isabella was silent. "Wow," she said, "I never realized what fun a table could really be. So that's really how all your huge projects got started, from things you imagined while playing under a table?"

"That's right."

"Hmm," Isabella thought, "maybe I should spend more time under a table."


End file.
